Can Çakmur (Piano), Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham, 13 October 2024, 5✩✩✩✩✩. Review: William Ruff.

"Can Çakmur: fine pianist and impressive communicator."

Turkish pianist Can Çakmur is going to be a hard act to follow in this year’s Sunday Morning Piano Series at Nottingham’s Royal Concert Hall.  He’s only 26, standing at the threshold of his career, but already he’s not only a fine pianist but also an impressive communicator, establishing instant rapport with his audience and able to describe music in ways which open ears and whet appetites. 

His programme was well-crafted: Schumann, Schubert and Chopin, three composers dating from the earlier nineteenth century, all pillars of the piano repertoire, all poetic and passionate and each with a highly individual musical personality.

He started with Schumann’s Papillons, a set of twelve sparkling and vividly contrasted miniatures whose delicacy, brilliance and brevity suggest their ‘butterfly’ title.  The tiny pieces seem to whirl around trying not to collide with their companions, like dancers at a glittering ball dressed in gowns of sumptuous variety and dramatic contrasts.  Can Çakmur, with the lightest of touches, coaxed vivid colours from the keyboard right up to the end when midnight strikes and the dancers gradually fade away.  The effect was magical.

 Four of Schubert’s Impromptus came next: some of the best-known piano music in the repertoire but refreshed by Can’s introductory comments pointing the audience in the direction of Beethoven’s funeral, various Schubert songs, the music of Spain, streams, waterfalls - and the rapidity with which Schubert turns from joy to the contemplation of death.  Can Çakmur’s performance was full of drama and intense poetry: the rich melodic lines really sang and retained their intimacy within the large concert space.

His recital ended with Chopin’s 4th Ballade, music which opens with quiet melancholy before being gradually transformed into a storm, ending with some of the composer’s most passionate music.  Here, as throughout this unusually satisfying programme, Can Çakmur extracted a wide range of colour from the keyboard as well as injecting every bar with drama.

An encore was inevitable.  His choice of a Chopin waltz was perfect: crystalline textures and deep insight into the dance as a powerful and intimate form of human communication.  This may be the first time you’ve heard the name Can Çakmur – but it won’t be the last.

Can Çakmur, playing in the Sunday Morning Piano Series at Nottingham’s Royal Concert Hall.